Change Management in Private Secondary Schools of Qadisiyah Governorate

Research aimed at identifying the reality of change management in the secondary school in the Qadisiyah governorate. The research sample consisted of 514 faculty members of 36 private schools in Qadisiyah governorate consisting (364) males and (180) female respondents. A survey research technique is adopted and reliability and validity of instrument is estimated by construct validity and test-retest reliability accordingly. The results of this study indicated that change management for secondary school principals is realized in faculty members of private secondary schools of Qadisiyah governorate. Furthermore, responses were compared on gender and years of experiences basis and it is found that responses are significantly different on gender basis while insignificant on experience basis. The study concludes that the principals of secondary schools should coordinate with the highest administrative levels for providing training opportunities for teachers according to the needs of teachers. There is a need to focus and introduce modern and sophisticated management patterns for the private secondary schools. This will help administration to apply change management in their educational institutions.


Introduction
The times we are currently living have been evolved from the age of discovery of space to the age of the computer to rapid change. It is fair to call the era in which we live the era of managing change to improve and sustain performance (Ibrahim, 2003). The way to success is to absorb all technological, economic and social developments changes by adapting the information revolution to improve the quality of the educational process. The management of change is an important starting point for improving the quality of the educational process. It will eliminate many of the disadvantages of traditional management prevalent in the developing countries like Iraq. In Iraq education departments have their old habits of stereotyped and formalism in decision-making and implementation. The traditional way in the administrative work continues to be subject to the centralization of the decision and the powers (Tewel, 1991).
The educational institutes need to improve through change management. The present epoch is marked by change therefore administrations of the private schools must cope up with change to adapt it for fruitful benefits. The administration of schools must be aware of the best management styles to effectively manage the changes in accordance with the requirements and circumstances of the society. To keep pace with the social, economical and political changes it is vital to improve and expand the educational process to obtaining quality. Hence, the importance of private schools may increase due to high expectations to fulfill future needs. Education and schools have been contributing to fundamental changes in society since education corresponds to the society that defines its system (James, 1981). The country like Iraq exposed to rapid and disparate changes in laws and regulations and political and educational leadership. Therefore, it is worth to investigate the expansion of educational institutions particularly private secondary schools to in terms of adopting changes in educational sector. Hence, the purpose of this research is to investigate the management of change in private secondary schools because it has an effective and distinctive impact on the process of schools.

Literature Review
Changes in the systems or culture of organizations is to improve the way they perform their activities and increase their effectiveness by improving the operations of an organizational system (Sharida and Hayam Naguib, 2004). Shqura (2012) explained the change as The planned purposeful order that takes place after analyzing the past and present and future indicators for improvement and development by indentifying the need of organization. Change management defined by the Hamadat and Mohammed (2007) it is a systematic and planned effort to achieve the goals of change by influencing the values, skills, patterns and behavior of individuals while using the technology processes and organizational structures. Similarly Mohammed (2015) introduced change as development in the organization's systems or culture by improving the operational effectiveness.
Volan Fullan argues that those who make educational change cannot make the required change unless fulfill some prerequisites. These requirements for change management are technical knowledge, interpersonal skill of the change agent. Technical understanding of the dynamics of change guides the actions of the individual conceptual and technical understanding. The skills of interpersonal interaction and communication demonstrate the ability of the individual know the problems of change faced by the employees (Wisller et al., 1988). The stages of the change process are explained by Levin. The most famous model that attempt to illustrate how the changes occurred (Al-Subaie and Obaid Abdullah bin al-Qashter, 2009). According to this model first phase is defrosting (initialization for change)

Defreezing
A phase in which the attitudes, values, practices and behaviors currently practiced within the Organization are replaced by new motives that serve the individual and the enterprise.

Changing
A stage that focus on the need to learn the individual ideas and new working methods and skills. Then the relevant department informed about knowledge and new methods of work to contribute to the modification and development of the behaviors and skills of individuals.

Refreezing
This is a phase that confirms the skills, ideas and new directions that have been developed for individuals. The objective of this phase is to stabilize the change.
However, some educational literature refers to the following stages 1

Initiative
It is intended to publicize change and to shed light on the dimensions and effects of change by clearly defining the objectives of change. Setting a timetable to achieve the goals and formulating strategy to achieve those goals.

Application
This is a phase of implementation of the agreed program of action to achieve the goals of change. In order for the change to achieve its objectives, staff must be informed about the change process and the stages or steps of its implementation. What are the tasks required from them towards each stage.

Stability and Continuity
There are four elements that help to achieve balance (stability and stable enough to achieve the objectives set, and sufficient continuity to bring about a planned and orderly change in the ends and means, and sufficient agreement to achieve a proper reaction to the circumstances The changing interior and external demands, and sufficient selections through which the change can be initiated according to the established circumstances.)

Personification Diagnosis
Identifying the problems and constraints that hinder change, including those related to human and material elements, and also identifying positive results achieved after the change in accordance with the established criteria (Ihsan, 2011).

Change Process
To bring a successful change in educational institutions a step by step process need to be followed. First of all, for successful change initiative a common public vision to develop. The established management behavior is meant for the vision and future prospects of the educational institution. The administrative leader or principles need to disseminate this vision among the members of the institution. Thus, the leader generates the desire and enthusiasm of his staff for change, and defines them with the goal that the educational institution seeks to achieve. In second step, build a collective agreement on the objectives and priorities of the Foundation. The management should encourage cooperation between the members of the foundation to set clear common achievable objectives. It must reach a collective agreement with them on the priority of achieving these goals. Thirdly, the need to establishment of a common culture within the educational institution. The formulation of a set of behavioral norms, values, beliefs and postulates shared by all the members of the educational body. This will in turn support initiatives and development directives, promote projects and educational innovations. The nest stage is about behavior modeling. This dimension is meant by the director's behavior, which represents a vivid example of his staff. Hence, this example reflects the values espoused by the director and reinforces the faith on the abilities of staff members to brig change. The individual needs and differences of individuals in the institution need to be addressed. The degree of interest of the leader in the individual needs and differences between the workers, especially with regard to the need for growth and professional development will affect the process of change. Further the right infrastructure is vital to support innovative and developmental initiatives to improve the working environment and provide opportunities for the members of the educational institution.

Change Constraints
The desire to bring change in educational institutions may face some of the difficulties that lie in the central planning and actual and realistic practices of implementation. The constraints start from the administrative structures and other elements of the system since each situation changes their circumstances and characteristics. However, there are a range of obstacles faced by most educational institutions while implementing change.
1. The lack of clarity of objectives and the acceptability of these objectives by the leaders and staff of the system.
2. Procedures for centralized change management. This may neglect some important things or exaggerate the management of change.
3. Employees in educational institutions avoid trends in the management of change whereas they are interested in their interests and needs.
4. How freedoms and initiatives to manage educational change are limited or broad. 5. Problems relating to the political, social and economic environment and organization within the institution. Change Management Skills Every person has its own distinctive skills according to its job. Similarly managing a change like other tasks requires a set of skills. These skills may be acquired through training and preparation. The ability to identify problems, explain the causes and consequences, confront the conditions of subordinates and the system environment. Try to engage others in the teamwork, pursue them to change process and assume the responsibilities. Information assessment in the form of innovation and modernization of ideas aimed at Change management. For all these tasks, preparation and strong analyzing skill is required. After preparation, there must be a planning skill that should identify opportunities and solutions and evaluate alternatives with critical thinking. Planning skills require identification and forecasting of application problems, cost-benefit analysis and prioritization. In addition to this the ability to learn how the new organization helps and facilitates the process of change is also important. Further, ability to motivate and persuade employees to perform their job functions is need utmost (Saeed Sen Amer, 1992). Communication skill is also vital to remover interpersonal conflicts (Ibrahim, 2003;Osama Mohammed Sayed Ali, 2013). Realization of change in an organization is a challenge for management. On the one hand there may be economic problem, shortage of human and material resources. They can overcome these problems by effective and efficient management and a strategy that control constrains (Ahmed Ismail Haji, 1994). Change is important in educational institutions as it develop the ability to innovate or stimulate the desire to develop, improve, upgrade, and conform to the requirements of life. Change is also important in keeping abreast of educational and technological developments by adding new dimensions to the educational process which is imperative in educational institutions. A proactive administrator must be ready for change to invest in the reality that leads to the acquisition of skills, expertise and reproducible knowledge that facilitates the absorption of the necessary changes (Yahya Mohamed Nabhan, 2007). In this research we shed the light on the level of change in private schools to identify the ability to cope up with challenges of new era.

Methodology
This research aimed to investigate the reality of change management among the faculty of the private secondary schools in Qadissiyah Governorate. Therefore, need for management of change among the faculty of the private secondary schools in Qadissiyah Governorate has been compared according to the gender (males-females). Furthermore, management of change among the faculty members of the civil secondary schools in Qadissiyah Governorate has also compared on the basis of years of experience.
The sample is the collected on random sampling basis and unit of analysis is the faculty members of private secondary schools in Qadissiyah Governorate. In total 514 questionnaires were filled by 364 males and 150 female faculty members. Table 1 illustrates the research population and its corresponding sample.

Research Instrument
A purpose based questionnaire was developed to collect the data after a brief review of existing literature on the subject. In total 40 questions were formulated in accordance with the above procedures. To verify the validity of the tool a group of senior experts were contacted to collect responses on the tool. Total ten experts were contacted and based on the unanimity of at least 80% agree decisions on each item were selected. Items got lower scores was then modified and added or deleted. Finally, 33 item were included in the final questionnaire. The responses were collected on four point likert like scale (always-often-sometimes-rarely) (4, 3, 2, 1). The reliability of research tool is calculated by testretest to the same sample while the difference between the first and second application is fifteen days. Accordingly, 30 questionnaires were distributed to faculty members from outside the study sample. Using the Pearson correlation coefficient, test retest stability factor got 0.89 score. The reliability of the tool was also extracted by Cronbach coefficient to measure internal consistency on the respondent's responses (0.93).
Further to analyze the responses of respondents means values on each item is calculated and compared on the basis of gender and experience using t-test. In first step the realization of change among faculty members has been calculated using means value. The mean values is then tested using t-test to estimate the significance of mean value whether this value is equal to zero or not. Table 2 illustrates the result of t-test.
The responses of the research sample to the reality of change management for the faculty of the private secondary schools.  , 98), at the significance level (0.05). Which means that there is a statistically significant difference at the level of (0.05), thereby rejecting the null hypothesis, i.e., that there are significant differences between the means of the faculty members and the hypothetical average in the application of the change management in reality. This shows that the principals of the civil secondary schools are seeking changes in their schools. It may be because change is a matter of fact, a natural principle and a reality in all societies. It is an urgent necessity in all aspects of human life and that it is the only means for the development and progress of individuals and societies as the world is undergoing rapid and intense changes.
Second, each item of the tool was analyzed on the change management reality by using the mean, standard deviation and percentage weight. Table (3) showing the mans, standard deviation and order of the items according to their weighted  Table (3) shows that the most of the faculty members are agreed on a high degree of realization of change in principles. With the number of items representing high degree is 29 among total 34, as their weights ranged between (3.44-2.69) and their percentage weight ranged between (86%-67.25%). These values are greater than the mean weighted values. It is also noted from the table that five items represent a low degree of application with a mean range of between (2.38 -2.04) and their percentages (59.5%-51%), which is less than the weighted mean. This means that the change management for the principals of the Community schools was at a high level, which shows that school principals have sought to bring about positive management changes in their schools. The principles of schools know the importance of educational changes to improve the performance of the school, as it may contribute to the promotion of educational institutions towards innovation and improvement. Professional growth of teachers according to the change plan to be completed which should correspond to the rapid, renewable and differentiated configuration changes.
It is further noted that the items got lower score was indicating the principles requires senior management levels to provide teacher-training opportunities in accordance with laws and regulations. This shows that although the principals of the private secondary schools emphasize the importance of change that contributes to the development and school performance. However, they are unable to demand training opportunities for teachers in the school from higher authorities. This may be due to the fact that they are private schools that open from the personal capital of the individual and the higher administrative levels are not responsible for providing training opportunities for the cadres of these schools.
In second stage responses of faculty members on the need of change has compared on the basis of gender and experience. T-Test was used for comparing two different samples on the basis of gender and presented in table (4). This means that there is a statistically significant difference, thereby rejecting the null hypothesis, i.e., there are significant differences of the faculty members of the private secondary schools according to the gender. However, for the females, the arithmetic mean (100.573) and a standard deviation (6.344) are higher than the arithmetic mean and the standard deviation of males. It may be due to the dedication of the principals of the private secondary schools to provide and affirm all the changes necessary for the success of the educational-learning process.
In third step statistically significant differences for change management by the principals of the civil secondary schools in Qadisiyah Governorate according to years of experience from the viewpoint of the faculty members. For this purpose ANOVA test is applied and the results are presented in table (5).  Table F-value (3.14) at significance level 0.05, which indicates that there are no differences between the sample members of the teaching staff about the change management of the civil secondary schools according to the years of service.

Conclusion
On the basis of above discussion this study concludes that scientific and technological pressures and the needs of society stimulate the management of change. Change is a prerequisite for the pressure to be addressed and directed to the development of educational institutions with their objectives and needs. Change management in educational institutions reflects the prevailing scientific and technical progress. Change management is not specific to a particular problem but extends to success, growth, investment and its reflection on educational outcomes. The study gives insights for those responsible for the educational system. The results of research in learning about the needs of educational institutions and the renewal of the educational systems that society needs and strives for achieving the quality to build a better future. Change management is an input from the contemporary management ideas needed to develop the educational administration and try to benefit from it to develop the management of educational institutions in Qadissiyah Governorate.
The principals of secondary schools should coordinate with the highest administrative levels by providing training opportunities for teachers according to the needs of teachers. There is a need to focus and introduce modern and sophisticated management patterns for the private secondary schools. This will help administration to apply change management in their educational institutions. The administration of the private secondary schools urged the members of the educational bodies in their schools to participate in the modern training courses that are compatible with the technology of the changing age. These training courses will increase their professional development and generate a desire for creativity and change. The higher authorities in the province should contribute with the principals in overcoming obstacles that impede the achievement of change and assess the need for private schools to change. Further, development of a participatory strategy between the Directorate of Education and School administrations in the preparation of plans and programs in support of change is needed utmost. Since the results of the research showed the desire of principals for the private school to bring about important administrative changes and thus the Directorate of education should promote positive practices towards change.